Survey Conducting

Qualitative Research on a Quantitative Scale?

Friday, March 11, 2011 by Joeline Cross

@jtimed asked us on Twitter the following question:

jtimed twitter post scaleability multimedia market research

It’s a thought that has been echoed by market research professionals we met at NetGain 5.0 and the CASRO Online Conference in Vegas. It’s definitely a challenge, and we are only scratching the surface, but we’ve started to find some success by looking outside of MR for solutions (necessity being the mother of invention, and all...).

Firstly, photo and video data is qualitative in nature so you can’t get around coding it in some fashion to get the most out of what you’ve collected.

Even in a very open unstructured research design, we often include a few quant type questions which helps respondents to code the content of the photo or video for us according to pre-defined options. Or you can quantify a qualitative preference like below.

Of course, this approach doesn’t capture everything, so you then might go to a coding specialist software and service like ‘Ascribe’ by Language Logic. They innovated in text coding, but have applied efficient time saving code book techniques to multimedia coding, too. Still, this is a time-intensive process...

So back to the quantifying of your qualitative data... Microsoft provides MS Pivot, which we’ve used to pull in metadata (i.e. survey answers) associated with photographic data – then you can start to do some dynamic sorting and get a feel for the quant story behind the mountains of qual data you’ve collected. We first explored this with Ipsos last May on our Great British Weekend (MCASI) project.

We asked respondents what they were doing, who they were with, and to take a photo and GPS capture of where they were over the course of a day. Pivot allowed us to filter the images by response data such as:

• Location

• Family

• Friends

• Food

• Media

And other activities that people were engaging in.

It’s a dynamic sort and looks like this (sorry for the lack of sound - we didn't have time to make it look very polished - we just wanted to respond to you!):

When you look around to other tools like Google Maps, you can start to create other insightful views like what follows:

From here you can see stories evolve from the visual trends such as people watching media, feeling relaxed, eating with family, being excited about being out with friends etc..

It’s getting easier and easier to collect photos, video and GPS (heck – even barcode capture will be mainstream by 2012) as consumers become more savvy with smartphone technology and handset sales continue to increase. This will only continue to rise, as will the adoption of tablet devices built on Google’s Android and Apple’s iPad platform.

We don’t have all the answers – but we want to find them with you.

Industry trend watchers continue to talk about what to do with the large volume of qualitative data that is being captured (not to mention the space it requires to store them all) and it’s an issue that industry leaders and innovative market researchers are continuing to advance. The key point is that the information provided in photos, video, GPS and barcodes (and other forthcoming advances) in real time is valuable in offering richer insights into the consumer’s experience which is valuable to clients and researchers alike.

We can offer market researchers the opportunity to provide a holistic view of the consumer experience validated in real time as they take their smartphone from home to work, to the supermarket, cinema, restaurant and back home again. If your clients knew this was available for diary studies, mobile mystery shopping, CAMI and mobile panel, wouldn’t they ask for it?

With apps-based research that is appropriately designed to answer the research question, for the audience, for the device and for how the respondents use it, it is possible to conduct qualitative research on a quantitative scale. We want to work with you to make this happen.

@jtimed and others in our community – we’d love to hear your thoughts on this industry challenge.

A game changing year for mobile (by comScore)

Thursday, March 10, 2011 by Joeline Cross

We came across comScore's 2010 Mobile Landscape Overview today (published in February 2011) and thought you would like to read about some of the movements in mobile/cellular activity.

A Game Changing Year for Mobile

2010 was a year of undeniable progress in the mobile arena. A wide variety of increasingly advanced devices were introduced to the market, mobile content options continued to increase with an ever-growing library of applications paired with improvements to the mobile browsing experience, while the definition of the word “mobile” evolved with the introduction of tablet devices such as the iPad. Major milestones in mobile were crossed during the year both in the U.S. and EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) markets. comScore also began reporting data on the Japanese market beginning in mid-2010 so year over year trends are not available, However, an in-depth look at the Japanese market is included in the‘Spotlight’ section, and relevant cross-market comparisons are made throughout based on activity in the back half of the year.

In December 2010, nearly 47 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. were mobile media users (browsed the mobile web, accessed applications, downloaded content or accessed the mobile Internet via SMS) up 7.6 percentage points from the previous year.
The growth in mobile media usage is largely attributable to the growth in smartphone adoption, 3G/4G device ownership and the increasing ubiquity of unlimited data plans, all of which facilitate the consumption of mobile media.
From December 2009 to December 2010, the percentage of mobile phone subscribers with unlimited data plans increased from 21.3 percent to 29.0 percent, with more phones now requiring an unlimited data plan subscription at the time of purchase.
During the same period, smartphone ownership increased from 16.8 percent to 27.0 percent, while 3G/4G phone ownership reached 51 percent in December 2010.

Interestingly, the availability of apps is the second highest purchase driver for smartphones.

comScore smartphone purchase consideration factors

Mobile Increasingly Embedded in Daily Life

While the total mobile media audience increased substantially in 2010 (+20 percent in the U.S., +19 percent in EU5) and all signs suggest it will continue to do so, one of the most important shifts has been the increase in the frequency with which mobile phone owners use their devices to connect to content and peers.

Across three key categories (email usage, news and information access, and social networking) the largest observed increases were in mobile users who access these services almost daily, compared to weekly or once during the month. Social networking especially saw high growth, with daily users increasing 104 percent in the EU5 and 80 percent in the U.S. For many people, mobile media consumption has rapidly moved from an occasional activity, perhaps even a novelty, to an essential service they depend on every day while at home, work or on the move. The following shows how people use their mobile phones in EU5 and USA.

comScore Fastest Growing mobile categories in USA

comScore Fastest Growing Mobile Categories in EU5

Multi-Screen Consumption – How Do Consumer Patterns Vary by Device

As the number of devices continues to proliferate, one very interesting dynamic with important implications for the digital ecosystem is the pattern of consumption across devices during the course of a day.

As an example, comScore conducted an analysis over a 24-hour period in the U.S. on online newspaper readers’ consumption habits revealed some interesting insights on the synergies across devices – PC, smartphone and iPad. Overall PC viewing accounted for 97 percent of all online newspaper views during the 24 hour period, while smartphones accounted for 2 percent and the iPad accounted for less than 1 percent. When looking at how Americans utilized these devices differently throughout the day to consume news, it was observed that morning hours saw similar relative readership across all three devices. While in the afternoon, online newspaper readership peaked on PC and while at night iPad readers consumed more news on the device than during the day.

[Update on 15-Mar-11: South by South West, the social media & technology conference held each year in Austin, Texas is buzzing with news that Mashable reported: people now read more news via internet devices than from newspapers: "Poynter’s research showed that almost half of Americans in a survey said they got at least some of their news on a mobile device or tablet. As tablet makers, app makers and news outlets continue to perfect the news consumption experience on that form factor, we’ll have a whole new breed to analyze and fret over this time next year." It really is a trend impacting content providers, technologists, businesses, advertisers and market researchers alike.]

comScore Habits of Online Newspaper Readers by Device and time of day.

comScore Habits of Online Newspaper Readers by Device and time of day.

Obviously for market researchers this is interesting because if we are to get qualitative insights from our respondents, we need to consider the most appropriate qualitative research design for the way people are actually using their mobile devices. In the new mobile world, consumer is king and we had better ask the right questions, optimized for the right device, taking into consideration the user experience, if we are to gather rich data for insights. If your client wants to know how 26-54 year old women spend their leisure time and why, then how would you adjust your research design to target the respondent who is on their mobile tablet at night?

Download the full report here: http://www.comscore.com/index.php//Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/2010_Mobile_Year_in_Review

What's next for mobile market research?

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Samantha Singh

Guess what are the three things people take when they leave home? - Wallet, keys and yes, mobile phones! Imagine browsing your Facebook account and accessing the news while on a bus on your way to work, or passing time playing games on your Ipad and checking the latest stock trends while waiting on an airport for a business trip? Sound all too familiar?

Gone are the days of paper surveys or email questionnaires where you often get poor response rates. With the advancement of mobile technology, market research surveys can be seamlessly integrated into mobile apps, making it more fun for consumers to respond than traditional methods. Mobile platforms such as Revelation Mobile, FocusForums’ Iphone App and Techneos’ Soda are just some of the mobile survey platforms available in the market.

According to Frank-Thomas Naether, the Managing Director of NMRC, “Mobile research is about ‘capturing the moment’. This is highly relevant when it comes to gaining insights into the decision making process of participants. There are many tools and methodologies available in the market, some of them are really interesting and fascinating, and offers many possibilities to researchers”, said Naether.

He added, “Mobile Internet devices will become more and more central in everyone's life. Everybody is online and communication is possible in both directions. Online tracking studies are an interesting possibility and GPS technology will offer additional valuable information on how, when and where people do what. Mobile Research is still in its infancy and the possibilities are endless”.

See the original post:
What's next for mobile market research?

Click here for an example of a study using GPS technology conducted by market research firm, Ipsos, and powered by the SODA mobile survey platform.

Merchants should use mobile to find out about target consumers: study

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Samantha Singh

The mobile medium offers various channels that are ideal for collecting information about merchants’ and marketers’ target consumers, including SMS, the mobile Web and applications.

Survey-based market research company Ipsos and survey software provider Techneos are working together to pilot new technologies and applications for mobile research.

Their latest project called “The Great British Weekend” was conducted during the May 2010 Bank Holiday long weekend using Techneos’ survey research application, service-oriented development of applications (SODA) across multiple mobile phones, including Nokia and BlackBerry devices.

“[Marketers and merchants should] start making it easier for their customers to tell you what they think, where and when it’s important to them, and do it now,” said Sean Conry, vice president at Techneos, Vancouver, BC. “Mobile is the perfect channel for learning from your marketplace because it helps you to get anytime-everywhere feedback.

See the original post:
Merchants should use mobile to find out about target consumers: study

Final take
Dan Butcher, Mobile Commerce Daily

Ipsos and Techneos Collaborate on Groundbreaking Mobile App-Based Study

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Samantha Singh

While researchers normally prescribe when feedback is wanted from people, a "push" approach, reaching out to people asking to hear from them, a recent mobile research project has turned the tables on this traditional method. Ipsos and Techneos collaborated on a study called, "The Great British Weekend". It was conducted during the May 2010 Bank Holiday Weekend.

The study enabled people to provide insights and share their opinions, when and where it was important to them. The mobile surveys went beyond simple questions and answers incorporating GPS location and photo capture, and were deployed via apps across multiple mobile phone types, such as Nokia and BlackBerry.

Marketers and researchers can leverage the concept and findings of this mobile apps-based study to engage just about any consumer segment, hear their opinions and gain their feedback at the point of experience.

See the original press release:
Ipsos and Techneos Collaborate on Groundbreaking Mobile App-Based Study

Techneos client conducts on-site survey at the world's largest outdoor rodeo

Friday, May 14, 2010 by Samantha Singh

Check out this video, Zinc Research provides a tour of the on-site survey process at the Calgary Stampede.

Notice: Use Internet Explorer or Firefox to view video.

See the original post:
Calgary Stampede onsite survey

The mobile web: still a work in progress

Thursday, March 25, 2010 by Mark Cameron

I came across a very interesting whitepaper called "Why the Mobile Web is Disappointing End-users", which cites a survey of 1001 mobile web users conducted by Equation Research.

The whitepaper highlights the gap between people's high expectations and actual experiences using mobile web browsers. Slow connection times are identified as the biggest problem facing mobile websites today.

I frequently surf the web on my iPhone, and find that sites which are optimized for mobile browsing are quite responsive and usable. But most sites are not yet optimized for phones, making mobile browsing an unpleasant (or downright miserable) experience in many cases. There is still so much fragmentation in browser capabilities across mobile platforms that there is no single format that will reach a broad range of phones -- though Opera is doing its best to overcome that challenge. Of sites which are optimized, many are fine-tuned specifically for iPhone users, since Apple has set the new standard for mobile browsing (and because Apple dominates mobile web traffic, as illustrated in the latest web traffic statistics published by AdMob).

I recently attended an Ericsson event hosted by Wavefront, which is a world-class organization here in Vancouver that focuses on accelerating commercialization of new wireless products and services. An Ericsson representative provided stats indicating that the two factors which most impact mobile web browsing -- increased wireless bandwidth and reduced "latency" (essentially how long it takes to establish a connection) -- are converging to provide speeds in mobile web browsing that will meet or exceed what we currently experience on a desktop. The question is whether increases in browsing speed can outstrip the massive increase in web traffic that is expected from smartphone and netbook use, as I discussed in my blog post titled "Are we in for a mobile traffic jam?"

In addition to browsing speed, there are many differences in user experience across mobile browsers. Various input methods -- ranging from non-touchscreen devices with thumbpads to stylus-based touchscreens to capacitive "finger-touch" screens, not to mention whether a device has a physical or on-screen keyboard -- make it very difficult to create a consistent user interface that spans many different hardware platforms. And fierce competition to establish web-based standards -- such as Adobe Flash vs. Microsoft Silverlight -- makes it difficult for developers to choose which of the latest and greatest controls to use within their web solutions.

This all points to how young the mobile web really is. I am a big believer that the mobile web will eventually be as ubiquitous as the desktop web is today, but for now the challenge of fragmentation is every bit as real for mobile websites as it is for downloadable mobile applications. For anyone looking to the mobile web as a "magic bullet" for engaging the masses, we're not quite there yet...

Making sense of the mobile platform jungle

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Mark Cameron

I've been getting very close to most of the mobile platforms on the market today, and wanting to summarize my thoughts about their potential impact on mobile research. Seeing Samantha's February 25th post about smartphone market share, a brain-dump on the subject should dovetail nicely...

Looking back on key announcements over the past year, Google, Apple and more recently Microsoft have made the most significant splashes in terms of mobile innovation. However, when the dust settles we still see Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM) leading the charge with 47% and 20%, respectively, of the mobile OS market in 2009. Why is this the case, and what can we expect to see moving forward?

I believe the current mobile market is a race between 5 horses, but I will not count others out over the long term due to the still-early nature of this arena. The key players today are:

Apple: since its release, the iPhone has set the bar for smartphone usability; its slightly thinner sibling, the iPod touch, is the definition of a sleek, modern Personal Digital Assistant (PDA); and the forthcoming iPad is one of the most anticipated products of all time. Simply put, Apple has a lot of swagger and momentum in the mobile space. But Apple runs a very closed environment that people either love or hate, and this creates opportunities for other more open platforms to shine. Also, while Apple has done very well in the consumer space, it has made fewer inroads into the enterprise, where RIM and Microsoft thrive.

Research in Motion (RIM): the BlackBerry is one of the most impressive brands of our time. While RIM is often considered less marketing savvy than Apple, I would suggest that their marketing tactics have been every bit as effective as Apple's -- just different. Despite a barrage of criticism about the sexiness and usability of their products, RIM continues to grow and profit at an astounding rate. I personally questioned the usability of BlackBerry products compared to more elegant competitors like iPhone and Android, but I have come to appreciate them as solid, enterprise-worthy devices, and to see the company as a very savvy player in the mobile space. RIM has developed very deep roots with both wireless carriers and enterprise IT departments, as well as a powerful brand that is almost synonymous with thumb-typing on a mobile phone.

Nokia: the Nokia/Symbian world is complicated. Having personally handled dozens of Nokia phones, I would summarize that their strength is in their diversity of offerings to multiple levels of the marketplace. This is also their weakness. With countless products, three current operating systems, and a solid-but-aging feel on much of their hardware, it is hard to believe that Nokia still outsells its nearest smartphone competitor at more than a 2-to-1 ratio. But while they are not as strong in North America, Nokia is a major player in Europe and downright dominant in many other regions of the world. It is hard to discount a company that produces over 1 million phones per day (yes, you read that correctly). With the incredible depth of carrier relationships and distribution channels which they have developed, Nokia's challenge now is to fill those channels with products that compete with their ever-growing range of competitors.

Google: Google has garnered a lot of attention since announcing the open-source (and freely available) Android platform in 2007. By providing a smartphone operating system that is free and extensible, Android has garnered support from dozens of handset manufacturers including major players like Motorola and HTC. In contrast to Apple, Google's greatest strength (and weakness) is its openness. I am personally very impressed with most of the Android devices I have used, and as a consumer I have great optimism that Android will be a force to be reckoned with in mobile technology. But I also recognize that openness can lead to fragmentation, and I've heard a lot of grumbling from developers about the lack of standards on Android devices. As Microsoft learned when it allowed device manufacturers and wireless carriers to customize experiences based on its Windows Mobile platforms, I believe that the many emerging flavours of Android devices will make it difficult for developers to target. That said, I believe that Google's ability to integrate the mobile experience with all of their other web-based services will make it a formidable player in the mobile space, and I believe the fragmentation issue can be overcome as Google and other Android licensees learn to coexist.

Windows Mobile: I recently spoke about the forthcoming Windows 7 Phone Series, so I won't repeat myself on the details. Suffice to say that I think Microsoft has re-entered the mobile race, and demonstrated that they are not planning to turn away from this increasingly important battlefield. Microsoft has learned a lot of lessons over more than a decade in mobile computing, and I believe their enterprise roots will serve them well as they re-assert themselves with a brand new mobile platform. What remains to be seen is whether Microsoft can garner enough consumer interest to unseat competitors in the mass market, or whether it will continue to play a more niche role as an enterprise solution.

I have not even mentioned the likes of Palm (webOS), Samsung (bada), Linux Mobile (LiMo), or expanded on the now open-source Symbian OS (the Nokia-bred OS that was recently spun off as a freely available platform). And there are others... but the rabbit hole is simply too deep to cover here, so I will get back to the purpose of my post: to discuss the impact of mobile platform trends on market research.

There are fundamentally two ways to engage people on their mobile devices in a data-intensive way: (1) via their web browser; and (2) using a downloadable application.

Mobile web browsers are improving in capability and usability, and are finally emerging as a lowest-common-denominator approach to mobile engagement. If you need to reach a lot of people in a relatively shallow way, e.g. to conduct a brief mobile survey about a product or experience, then a mobile browser may well be the way to go. Although mobile browsers are still fragmented, the emergence of mobile web technologies such as HTML 5, JavaScript, CSS and Adobe Flash are making it more viable to reach a wide mobile audience.

Downloadable applications provide a richer user experience for applications such as diary studies and mobile panels, but they are typically harder to deploy to a broad range of users. Also dovetailing with Sean's recent post about quality over quantity, I would argue that in many cases a more select audience that is highly engaged is more valuable than a broad audience that is minimally engaged. It is these cases -- for example digital ethnography with alarms to trigger highly contextual questions at random times -- where mobile apps really shine.

Bear with me as I attempt to tie all of this information together...

The mobile jungle is in some ways becoming more wild every day, but I am also seeing signs that a handful of gorillas may be starting to establish some turf. While I don't believe that all five gorillas outlined here will win over the long term, each one represents sufficient market share and resources to be considered as key players for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, I think we will begin to see some stabilization of mobile platforms, resulting in more reliable ways to reach the masses via both web browsers and downloadable applications.

For the next while solutions focused on mobile research will have to choose between "wide and shallow" or "narrow and deep" -- i.e. either focus on reaching a broad range of people with a more basic level of engagement, or on providing a high level of engagement within a more narrow scope of users. I don't feel that one is inherently better than the other, and both represent significant opportunities within the burgeoning mobile research space.

Over the long term the two paths that I have identified will converge. In the meantime, having invested a lot of time and energy developing methods to engage people in a deep and meaningful way, I am a big believer in the power of rich mobile applications. With over 3 Billion application downloads in less than 18 months, Apple has more than proven the viability of downloadable apps, and all other major platforms have since poured significant resources into their own mobile app stores.

Over the next while it is prudent to focus on the five key players I have identified here: Apple, RIM, Nokia, Google and Microsoft. But peripheral vision is often what sets the great apart from the good, so I allow my eyes to wander a bit in search of innovative smaller players that might just have a thing or two to teach the gorillas.

Examining the effectiveness of mobile phone support for helping smokers quit

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Samantha Singh

Legacy’s Schroeder Institute has selected Techneos’ SODA™ Mobile Access Platform to power an innovative study examining the effectiveness of mobile phone support for the D.C. Tobacco Quitline. See the full press release, here.

Traditionally researchers conduct panels and surveys asking participants about their thoughts, opinions, and sentiments, but what about participants’ level of engagement? I came across an article presented at ESOMAR’s Asia Pacific Conference last year, nominated for the Excellence Best Paper, and titled, “What does Research 2.0 mean to consumers in Asia Pacific?” In their presentation, Poynter et al. asked the question; to what extent are consumers in Asia Pacific responding to co-creation and collaboration initiatives? Are they responding differently than other consumers around the globe?

Technology is clearly altering the way research is undertaken on a global scale, yet it remains to be seen which particular settings, cultural contexts and end user experiences are most conducive to strong consumer and study participant engagement.

Legacy’s research addresses this technology question and examines how mobile phone support can help participants become more engaged in the Quitline program, request assistance and input from one-another, and ultimately, quit.

New Restrictions on Research Incentives

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Sean Conry

The rules of research are about to change in Spring 2010. The MRS (UK's professional association for researchers) will begin enforcement of a new ban on use of client goods or services as incentives in a research project.

So many corporate communities, especially branded panels, rely heavily on this very technique for survey conducting.

Who can deny the reason behind it? I remember answering a poll in a teen magazine (was that really decades ago?) where I purposefully skewed my answers to highlight my desire to see more of the content that they were providing in that very issue. I thought it would increase my chances of winning the cash prize! But in fact I couldn't have cared less about Menudo.

With DIY research making a stronger push than ever, how does this affect the position of the professional researcher who is already challenged when trying to coach clients about the "right" way of doing things?

Maybe the promise of mobile research where true engagement through 2-way communication occurs will emerge one technique that can gain answers without bribes. But we'll never escape it will we? Time is money, especially when it comes to hard-to-reach populations.

Maybe it's no big deal. Cash always been king when it comes to the incentive that works for everyone. But where does that leave financial research? :)

The Frustration of Mobility and Reach

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 by Sean Conry

In my last post, I wondered about device market share and it's affect on our ability to reach the right people for survey conducting.

I focused on the manufacturer / operating system, but another element also has a significant affect on reach. I guess you could call it Mode. We normally talk about mode in terms of whether we're collecting data over the web, over the phone, face-to-face, etc. Mobile is it's own mode, but there are choices within that mode.

Specifically, the primary mobile mode possibilities for a mobile survey system are text message, mobile web, and applications.

Check out this interview/podcast from a recent interview at a CASRO event. Heidi Dickert has some good points about how a different type of technology is required when looking at mobile surveys. The message? You can't just replicate the same old approach when it comes to mobile research.

Text messages give you ubiquitous reach, but the commonly held experience among those I speak with is that SMS surveys are good only for very, very quick polls. The burden on the respondent is high, and you can only squeeze in 3-4 questions before participation drops off - and if you haven't seen it yourself, believe me, it doesn't just stumble off the curb, it careens off the grand canyon.

Mobile web feels like it should be familiar since CAWI has taken over as the primary mode of choice in so many countries. However, the problem is that the mobile web isn't great yet for the vast majority of users. You still need a lot of patience. Think about a news page that requires 10 seconds to load, but then you spend 5 minutes reading. That's much more palatable when compared to refreshing screen after screen after screen of a mobile web survey. To reinforce this, check out Mobile Marketer's recent article about slow load time is the #1 performance issue on the mobile web.

Off course we believe in Applications (particularly Java where possible, native where needed). With iPhone App store just reaching it's 2 Billionth download in September, and Facebook's install base leaping from 2 million to 10.5 million in two months with the release of targeted Java versions, the path seems pretty clear to us...

The Affect of Social Networking on Research

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Sean Conry

As it gets harder for businesses (and researchers!) to reach people, the buzz about the affect of social networking applications is starting to get louder in our ears...

Apparently some people are wondering if the rise of direct forms of customer interaction like voice of the customer programs will make the use of Mystery Shoppers for mobile data collection a thing of the past.

Judi Hess, president of MSPA calls mystery shopping "a means to measure customer service, product knowledge, and sales ability." More important, she says, it offers subjective, targeted feedback that companies just can't get from less structured kinds of feedback, like social networking tools or surveys.

Ok, I can buy that. Read more here (you'll need to sign up for a free account).

Tom Anderson in particular is pushing us to think about the role of Social Networks and what he's calling "next gen marketing research". He recently interviewed representatives from Facebook and LinkedIn. It's just a start, but you can see that the social networks are starting to think about the convergence of these worlds, too.

Click here for the Podcast

All three of them will be a highlight of an upcoming ESOMAR panel session. This will be one you don't want to miss...

These are great articles to get us thinking about engagement, the future of survey conducting and the way we deliver insight from the market... But one of my favourite approaches comes from a seasoned researcher right here in Canada.

More on that next week...

Rugged and Portable Surveying Tablet PC

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 by Eric Simmons

In the world of mobile surveys there is a high demand for a rugged device that can withstand the many changing conditions and environments surveys are conducted in. Finding that perfect device at the right price point is no easy task. Add in the fact that it must have a full keyboard be lightweight and provide a touch screen narrows your choices down even more.

Well just so happened that a client was on the hunt for such a device. At first I was not very optimistic this devices existed, but after some Googling and talking with my colleagues I found just the device. The CTL 2GO Convertible Classmate PC!

It’s a touchscreen Netbook with Intel’s latest Atom processor and comes with two modes, tablet mode and traditional laptop mode. Built with carrying handle that is lightweight and a durable construction with a rugged outer case. Certified drop test of 50cm and a Water-resistant keyboard allowing for maximum protection. All of this for under $600 U.S. with a 6 cell battery and Windows XP.

If you are looking for a low cost tablet pc that can take a beating for your survey needs look no further!

Is the future of research directly related to the past?

Sunday, August 2, 2009 by Mark Cameron

I've found myself pondering the effect of mobile technology on the future of research, and figured it warranted a blog post. I've been involved with both handheld surveys and wireless technology for most of my career, and throughout that time I've been amazed at both how quickly and how slowly things change.

Mobile technology itself moves incredibly quickly, but adoption of technology can range from lightning fast to incredibly slow. Market research professionals are analytical and pragmatic by nature, so it is understandable that researchers have been slower to embrace new technology than many other industries. Ironically, market research is often a key driver for decisions which drive technological advances, yet it can take years for those advances to be reflected back into the research process itself.

Methodology is central to any decision relating to survey research methods. When new techniques are introduced to "improve" tried-and-true processes, it is important for researchers to understand all of the implications of the potential change before implementing it en masse. So research about research, or more specifically about new techniques for conducting research, is very important. But this is easier said than done, as most researchers are so busy generating revenue through existing methods that they lack time to explore new ones. The academic community breaks a lot of ground in this regard, but it takes time for academic research to reach--and to be embraced by--the commercial market research sector.

Recently I have seen mobile research being embraced as a reasonably mainstream approach for survey data collection. It is still "leading edge", but it is no longer "bleeding edge" -- at least for face-to-face interviews and diary studies. While the application of mobile survey software is still a niche play today, we are about to see it extend beyond its traditional application to touch every other aspect of survey research -- including web surveys, phone surveys, mystery shopping and other methods.

What intrigues me more than anything is where this bottom-up thinking will really lead the research industry. While we are busy planning for the evolution of survey research to involve mobile technology, I believe it is equally important to see things from the top-down: i.e. to realize that researchers are losing control of people's attention, and consumers are increasingly recognizing the value of their opinions. Will the methodologies of today be effective in the future, or do we need to reshape our thinking to embrace emerging realities?

I believe the future of mobile survey research looks a lot different than the past. We will not simply see old methods enhanced by new technology; entirely new methods will emerge around the cultural phenomena that shape our societies around the globe. There is no limit to the opportunities that will be enabled by social networking and location-aware technology, which will be bundled into mobile technology that will make today's most impressive devices seem as archaic as early PCs appear today.

Those of us who wrap our arms around the cultural changes that emerge as a result of new technology, rather than just trying to shape new technology to meet old and tired methods, will realize amazing new opportunities for mining insight from consumer opinions. There will be many false starts and a lot of experimentation, but in a few years we will look back at the way we did things in 2009 and be amazed by how dramatically human communication -- and in turn market research -- have changed within a very short time.

I'll share some of my predictions on this blog over the coming months. Today I just wanted to get the thread started with some background thoughts...

Summing up the cell-only problem for market research

Thursday, July 16, 2009 by Sean Conry

It seems as though reseach online has recently reinvented themselves. They were always a great source for information, but they seem to be exploding with news and original content lately.

A recent article titled "Survey Geek vs. The Cord-Cutters" offers an audio interview with self-confessed 'survey geek' and blogger, Reg Baker. There are also great links to relevant articles on the cell-only population and the affects on research. You can listen to it here:

This interview is great in my opinion, particularly in that he begins by describing the "cell-only" problem in terms of the sampling frame. He also eloquently yet concisely descsribes the issue of bias due to undercoverage, and how the target group of the research and the topic may affect results. Not to mention cost and data implications of doing a survey on mobile phone. Reg also identifies the "wireless mostly" problem. I won't replicate every point here in text, but here's a researcher who knows his stuff.

Brilliantly, he surmises (and hopes) that researchers will adapt to the problem by matching the method to the problem - execute "fit-for-purpose methodology decision", to paraphrase slightly.

But one thing stuck out to me... there's no mention of three significant and growing ways to conduct a mobile device survey, cellphone survey, mobile marketing survey (mobile research by whatever name you choose): WAP, SMS and Survey Applications.

Check out the latest numbers from CASRO. You might find it's worth getting ahead of the curve by adding other mobile techniques to your methodological tool box.

More options for mobile surveys: PDAs, Smartphones, Netbooks and more...

Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Mark Cameron

Techneos clients have been using Entryware survey software on Windows Mobile devices for many years. The release of Entryware 6.4 on July 8th will take our Windows Mobile support to a whole new level. We have streamlined the licensing and installation process for Windows Mobile devices, improved the look-and-feel of the entire Entryware Mobile application, and added key functionality to enable diary studies on a wide range of Windows Mobile PDAs and Smartphones (including photo diaries on supported devices).

Entryware software now has four distinct mobile "engines", all of which run questionnaires from a common authoring tool, Entryware Designer, and produce data in a common structure that can be exported to SPSS, ASCII, Excel, and other formats. Today, Entryware Mobile can be deployed seamlessly to the following mobile platforms:

Smartphone and PDA surveys:

Palm OS / Garnet OS
Windows Mobile
webOS (Palm Pre)

Tablet PC, Ultra-Mobile PC and Netbook surveys:

Windows 98/XP/Vista

It is also possible to run Entryware software using emulators or "virtual machines" (available from StyleTap or Access) on Symbian devices, including many Nokia Smartphones and Internet Tablets. We have done limited testing on those platforms to date, so we do not consider them "officially supported" yet. Let us know if there is a particular Symbian device that you want to use for mobile surveys, and we'll work with you to see what is possible in this next frontier...

If you haven't checked out Entryware software recently, drop us a line to get a fresh look at the platform. You might be amazed to see the level of survey research that can be conducted using a mobile device!

Why conduct landline-only surveys when 1 in 5 households are cellphone-only?

Friday, May 29, 2009 by Susan Bilczo

I ran across this article recently that highlights the results of a report that the Center for Disease Control put out on wireless substitution (aka canceling your land line for a cellphone).

There were some very interesting results:

Over one in five U.S. households (20.2%) are cellphone-only, an increase of 2.7% over six months ago.
One in every seven homes (14.5%) took all their calls on cellphones despite having a landline.
More than three in five adults living only with unrelated adult roommates (60.6%) were in households with only wireless telephones. This is the highest prevalence rate among the population subgroups examined.
Nearly two in five adults renting their home (39.2%) had only wireless telephones. Adults renting their home were more likely than adults owning their home (9.9%) to be living in households with only wireless telephones.
Men (20.0%) were more likely than women (17.0%) to be living in households with only wireless telephones.
Adults living in poverty (30.9%) and adults living near poverty (23.8%) were more likely than higher income adults (16.0%) to be living in households with only wireless telephones.

This information is certainly handy to market researchers as it helps them figure out the best groups of people to use mobile marketing surveys on rather than other survey methods.

But then I began to wonder, why would the CDC need to do such an in-depth study on mobile phone usage? Shouldn't they be focusing on health-related data collection?

Well, it turns out that most major survey research organizations, including the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, do not include wireless telephone numbers when conducting random-digit-dial telephone surveys. Therefore, the inability to reach households with only wireless telephones has potential implications for results from health surveys, political polls, and other research conducted using random-digit-dial telephone surveys.

So, to combat this problem, the CDC conducts in-person surveys to collect information on health-related issues. During this interview they also take the opportunity to collect information on household telephones: is your family wireless-only or landline. This information is released via the report above twice a year.

I think it is great that the CDC is aware of this problem, but why keep conducting random-digit-dial telephone surveys if you've already proven with your own study (not to mention all the other mobile phone vs. landline statistics that are out there) that you will get biased results?

Seems pretty obvious here that the best answer for the CDC, as well as the other major survey research organizations, is to switch to mobile data collection.

Mobile devices are the next breakthrough research environment

Friday, May 22, 2009 by Susan Bilczo

I ran across this article in the most recent MRA Alert! magazine, discussing how Smartphones, and the desire for a richer mobile service experience, are changing how we look at the mobile phone.

MOBILE PHONES ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST A PHONE

From text messaging to GPS to online banking to social networking to web browsing to gaming to online coupons to watching videos to, well, almost anything.

A quote from this same article says it really well:

"...the most dynamic and important technology platform today is mobile technology, and that from a marketing research perspective, it is becoming clear that mobile devices will be the next breakthrough research environment."

MOBILE RESEARCH GETS GOOD REVIEWS

Contacting people through their mobile device to conduct your mobile market research will also ensure a good response rate.

Robert Manchin, managing director of Gallup Europe, has found that respondents embrace mobile interviews. In a recent article, Pragmatism Over Ideology?, in the May 2009 Research World magazine, Manchin says:

"'We have quite a bit of evidence now that it's more personal because you are not losing someone at the first stage of sample selection (recruitment).' And people seem more likely to give up time on their mobile because 'dead time' is easier to find, such as while commuting or during breaks."

Survey conducting via mobile phones is certainly coming into its own. Why not look into mobile survey software for your future marketing research needs?

Mobile research saves trees

Friday, May 8, 2009 by Susan Bilczo

In a recent partnership with the Canadian Evaluation Society, I learned that they are greening their conference in a variety of different ways, including using Techneos Entryware mobile survey software to eliminate paper surveys.

This got me to thinking, how much paper can really be saved by eliminating paper surveys? So, I decided to do a little math.

While we don't know about every project our clients run, we do know that Techneos software has been used to conduct at least 10 million mobile surveys (and probably far in excess of that). The average survey uses about 15 pieces of paper, which means Techneos has saved around 150 million pieces of paper. Very impressive.

So then I got to wondering about how that affects the environment. Since one ream (500 sheets of paper) uses 6% of a tree, then that means we have also saved over 18,000 trees.

And, since 36 maple trees absorb approximately 1 ton of carbon over a 25 year period, then the trees we have saved will allow over 500 tons of carbon to be absorbed.

So just think how much paper your company could be saving if it switched from paper surveys to mobile survey software.

The wild west of mobile devices and the cellphone survey landscape

Thursday, April 30, 2009 by Sean Conry

I want to expand on my recent post about viability for wireless surveys on respondent devices...

People carry their mobile phone with them just about everywhere they go, and they increasingly view their mobile device as more than just a phone. The landscape is ripe for survey conducting anytime, anywhere, so why hasn't mobile market research completely blown up yet?

If you take the cost of wireless data out of the equation, then the answer largely lies with the vast array of devices on the market.

Compare the infrastructure question to telephone surveys. Every landline phone transmits voice - it's the main purpose of your home phone. You have decisions to make regarding your CATI software, RDD and sampling strategy. And getting people to pick up and stay on the line and talk to you is a problem, but when you place that call, the phone on the other side will work no matter what brand of phone is in use.

Now move to the Internet... On the web, you have respondents choosing to interact with you through Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and now Chrome. Your email invitation might get filtered out as SPAM, but there's a relatively small number of permutations that your survey software has to deal with when it serves up questions and answers on a computer screen.

Executing on a cellular survey provides a completely unique challenge. The number of devices, operating systems and even capability within a company's product line are staggering. Add to this that some users might only be able or willing to respond to you by SMS, not over the web, and it becomes clear that choice in the mobile marketplace is a problem.

Corporations don't develop with the notion that compatibility with their competitor is good. In the ever-changing world of mobile devices, they just want to get the next handset out, and get it out fast. Things don't always work as you'd expect...

I wish I could link to the source, but hearsay will have to do for now. At a recent wireless summit, a prominent panelist mentioned that when Transformers the Movie came out, they wanted the accompanying wireless app to work on every mobile device. It took 20,000 versions.

So which methodology do you choose if you want to reach respondents?

Do you go with a strategy that takes advantage of the iPhone, which

sold 3.8 million phones in the first quarter this year, or do you choose an application that has been customized to excel on a wide variety of devices, or do you go with SMS - something everyone can use, but limits your research options? It's a tough choice, because your sampling strategy needs to be considered in tandem with your method of data collection.

Will the market eventually show convergence, or will mobility follow the laws of entropy? Only time will tell...